|
|
SpatialNews Feature
College Crime Risk Mapping
by: Glenn Letham, November 12, 1999
editor@geocomm.com
APBNews.com, a leading web-based news provider, has just released a special report called "College
Community Crime." This powerful report provides the results of the first nationwide crime risk
survey of all four-year Colleges ever done in the United States. Detailed in the report are
statistics about community crime. Also, a most valuable tool called "Crime Risk Maps" were produced
for each College community as a byproduct of APBNews' intensive campus crime research.
 Via their College Crime Risk Maps, APBNews has been able to successfully link campus crime stats and
in-depth analysis, with maps. This union has provided users with the outstanding ability to quickly,
and conveniently VIEW crime risks for SPECIFIC areas of any College community, nationwide.
View of Crime Risk Maps Interface
from APBNews Website
College Crime Risk Maps
The College Crime Risk Maps (CCRMs) utility can be used to view the risk of violent crime for 1,497 College
communities. The CCRMs show users the level of risk associated with their selection of a College
community. Maps can be produced by entering a College name, nearest City, or by State. A predefined
pick list of "highest" ranked (more risk), "lowest" ranked (less risk), or Ivy League College
communities is also offered.
Once the user is presented with a crime map, instructions on how to read and interpret the map are
presented. APBNews has conveniently provided the following information to help interpret the maps.
How to Read the Map
A risk rating of one indicates your risk of violent crime is one-tenth the national
average. A rating of 10 indicates the risk is 10 times greater.
What This Map Tells You
This map shows a statistical prediction of the relative future risk of murder, rape or robbery in
neighborhoods when compared to all neighborhoods nationwide using a scale of 1 to 10.
What This Map Does Not Tell You
This map does not show how much violent crime was reported or what steps a College and its community
has taken to ensure the safety of students and residents.
As an example, I chose to view a map of Florida State University. I was quickly presented with some
results telling me that FSU has a Risk value of 9 and an overall ranking of 77.
 
Crime Map of Florida State University
In addition to the map, users are also presented with a campus security report summarizing the number and
types of crimes that have occurred on that campus. In addition, users can view the FBI Uniform Crime
Report for the City that the College is located in.
Some interesting findings from the College Crime Stats:
The top 10 schools in descending order of "lowest" risk are:
- Anna Maria College, Paxton, Mass.
- Bryant College, Smithfield, R.I.
- Gordon College, Wenham, Mass.
- United States Air Force Academy,Colorado Springs, Colo.
- Immaculata College, Immaculata, Pa.
- Hamilton College, Clinton, N.Y.
- Allentown College of Saint Francis de Sales, Center Valley, Pa.
- Bluffton College, Bluffton, Ohio
- Concordia College, Seward, Neb.
- Delaware Valley College, Doylestown, Pa.
Another utility provided by APBNews is APB/Neighborhood CrimeCheck. This is a mechanism for
producing a neighborhood crime map by entering a zip code. Enter your zip code and you are quickly
presented with a local crime map. Ranking ranges from low to extremely high.
Crime Map of Zip Code 32578
The map that I requested above is of Niceville, Florida, and shows that the Crime Rate is
determined to be 2 (Low). The APB/Neighborhood CrimeCheck ratings have been developed
for APBnews.com by CAP Index Inc., the nation's leading provider of crime risk assessment
data to corporate America. As stated earlier, a risk
rating of one indicates your risk of violent crime is 10 times below the national average. A rating of 10
indicates the risk is 10 times greater.
We are reminded that within ZIP codes, there may be areas of higher and lower risk. At the time of writing
this article CAP Index is developing an address-specific risk reporting system that will be available within
the next 12 months.
Overall, I found the APBNews website to be very interesting, well laid out, and informative. Its an excellent
example of GIS in action... The website provides a nice compilation of crime statistics as well nice simple
user interface. All in all, it is a very valuable and useful site. Also, for
those interested, APBNews has posted a number of letters from Colleges with their responses to the
findings and compilation of the statistics.
About the Data
APBNews retained CAP Index, a private company, to do all the mapping, GIS and statistical analysis. The
mapping was done with Mapinfo software. Socio-economic data was provided by CACI, uniform crime
reports from the FBI, victimization surveys from the Bureau of Justice Statistics, crime incident reports
from various police departments, and crime incident data provided by corporate clients.
CAP Index conducts a correlation between the socio-economic and crime data, apparently yielding a high correlation
coefficient between the data. The analysis is based on criminology theories concerning the relationship
between social disorder and crime. They use some 21 variables, including number of single parent
households, population density, real estate value, and a host of others. Data are aggregated by census tract
level.
A very special "thanks" goes out to Robert Port, Senior Computer-Assisted Reporting editor, APB Multimedia, Inc.
for providing the information concerning the Crime Maps.
About APBnews.com
APBnews.com (http://www.apbnews.com) is
the first news-centered network of programs exclusively devoted to
every audience for crime, justice and safety -- an 8-channel/23-program
Web site covering the most intensively followed genre in media.
APBnews.com includes a New York newsroom managed by veteran
newspaper and television journalists, more than 130 national
correspondents, and an advisory board composed of well-known
criminal justice and media professionals. APBnews.com's mission
statement, "To Inform and Serve," mandates accurate, expert,
contextual, fair and responsible reportage of crime, justice and safety.
Other Useful Web Links
While researching this topic, we came accross some interesting Crime Mapping stories and resources that may be of interest to you.
Follow the hyperlinks to obtain more information.
 SpatialNews Crime Mapping Resources
APBNews
National Institute of Justice
Crime Mapping Research Center
Article “Arming Beat Cops With GIS Weapons”
Article “Fighting Crime with Computer Maps”
MaxResponder
Community Policing Beat Book Application
The Community Policing Beat Book application is an easy-to-use application that
gives an officer access to electronic maps that display information about the
community, tools for recording and mapping various types of information, as well
as simple search and query functionality.
Crime Analysis Extension for ArcView GIS 3.1
This application is designed to provide easy-to-use tools for geographic crime
analysis, data management, mapping, and reporting.
Crime View
CrimeView is a geographic analysis product tailored specifically to crime analysis.
Digitalcorp Redistricting
The autoBound Redistricting system is designed to aid law enforcement and public safety agencies with
more efficient deployment of resources.
The Spatial Crime Analysis System (SCAS)
An ArcView-based GIS application designed to allow police departments to perform sophisticated
spatial analysis and mapping of their incident-based crime data.
Return to News Features Index
|
|
Sponsored by:
For information
regarding
advertising rates
Click Here!
|
